Nuggets earn biggest win of season

Gallinari still trying to find his rhythm

In a frantic finish Tuesday night at the Pepsi Center, the visitors, down four, missed a chance to cut the lead in the final 30 seconds, and the Nuggets defeated the San Antonio Spurs 112-106.

Looking back to the final series, Denver's Andre Iguodala said, "A few gray hairs were growing."

This was Denver's best win of the season, defeating the Spurs (19-8), who had slapped around the Nuggets (14-12) in a Nov. 17 game in San Antonio.

Nuggets coach George Karl agreed that it was the biggest win of the season, perhaps tied with the road win at Memphis.

"San Antonio has proven it is one of the top four teams in basketball," Karl said.

It was a doozy. The Nuggets led by 15 points in the fourth quarter, but the pesky Spurs, playing the second game of a road back-to-back, mounted a comeback. Denver's Danilo Gallinari, playing with the passion of a playoff game, was unflappable and unfazed for much of the night. He poured in a season-high 28 points, including two huge 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, each time desperately waving his arms to invigorate the crowd (as if the clutch 3 didn't already do that).

Gallinari is still trying to find some rhythm in his shot, but in the past five games, three times Gallo put up a big number, scoring 21 points at New York, 24 at Minnesota and 18 in just 26 minutes at Sacramento.

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"He got some matchups where his speed s was effective, some one-on-one stuff," Denver coach George Karl said of Gallo. "I thought it was the best running he's done for us. The pace of the game, I'd like it to be more consistently fast."

Against the Spurs, the Italian was energized, even unleashing perhaps his highlight of the year, hauling in an alley-oop pass from Andre Miller for a transition slam. Besides his points in the paint and at the foul line, Gallo was most effective from the left wing against the Spurs' defense.

Desperate in the third quarter, the Spurs implemented a Hack-A-Shaq strategy on the Nuggets' resident foul-shot clanker, JaVale McGee. The Denver center was just 4-for-10 from the line in the quarter, but the valiant Nuggets still outscored the opponents 35-27 in the third quarter, taking a 90-75 lead into the final quarter.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich explained it was a way to "not have to play any defense and put some fuel back in the tank, and it did, but during that period we couldn't knock down a couple of 3s. We couldn't get below 10 because we couldn't make the shots, but it gave us a little rest and helped us stay in it."

Before the game, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, ever the wordsmith, explained that "if Tony plays like dog doo-doo and Timmy (stinks), then we are going to lose."

Well, Tim Duncan did not (stink). He had 31 with 18 rebounds and six assists.

Tony Parker, though? Doo-doo. He was 4-for-12 with 13 points.

The Nuggets, understandably, were worried about the Spurs' 3-point shooting. After all, they remember the nightmarish night, Nov. 17, back when the Spurs made 16 3s. Well, the Nuggets seemed a step slow early on the perimeter, and the Spurs made 14-for-36 for the night.

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